HOSPITALS GEAR UP FOR TERROR ANNUAL BIO-EMERGENCY SCENARIO SET TO TEST PREPAREDNESS, KNOWLEDGE.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

Hospitals usually bracing for earthquakes or freeway pileups have been reviewing emergency procedures in the face of a new kind of terror-related disaster, officials said.

Many say they are preparing to handle a potential bioterrorism emergency - with hazardous materials-safe suits and emergency procedures at the ready - but the sheer numbers of possible patients poses the problem.

``I think a challenge for us is treating a large volume of people,'' said Valley Presbyterian spokeswoman Kellye Pitts. ``How can we treat them immediately and effectively?''

At Northridge Hospital Medical Center's Sherman Way facility, Emergency Room nurse Mike Pitts agrees.

His ER is ready with decontamination tents and masks that provide some protection, but handling an onslaught of patients could be a crunch.

``The real issue would be a mass exposure,'' he said. ``That would be taxing on any system.''

Next month, hospitals across the region will be participating in the county's annual emergency preparedness drill - a yearly exercise when the county's resources work in a mock scenario to test readiness.

As it happens, this year's mock disaster, chosen long before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, is based on bioterrorism - an outbreak of a plague to 1,500 people at a public event.

At Valley Presbyterian, workers will don haz-mat suits, call in off-duty workers and set up mock nursing stations to treat ``patients'' during the mock drill.

The hospital spokeswoman said part of the challenge in such an attack would be in determining which patients require immediate care - knowing there would also be those who have suffered other injuries, from heart attacks to strokes, who need attention.

The hospitals are also struggling with identifying new kinds of threats, like anthrax or smallpox, whose symptoms look much like the flu.

``That would kind of be the trick,'' said the Northridge nurse.

He said his group has been studying, teaching the crew to be able to identify different symptoms and modes of transmission to ensure the problems don't spread.

``There's a whole generation of physicians who have never seen these diseases,'' he said.

But many say the sheer numbers of potential patients could be difficult - an ER that handles 80 to 120 patients during a 24-hour period would be strapped to care for that many patients all at once, officials said.